“The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.” - " He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen." - Revelation 22:17, 20-21

"Live Like It's True!"

A few weeks ago I was reading in a Christian magazine called "Forward in Christ", a brief article about the word "Amen". Ask someone what it means and you get the general definition of "agreement". Ask a Christian and it is often translated something like "So shall it be". Or if you were Jean Luk Picard from Start Trek the Next Generation "Make it so!". It might even be translated "la la la la, la la la la", perhaps silly, but when put at the end of the statement "We are found in you!
And this makes all the difference

I have always loved this word and what it means, but as I was reading through the article, the highlighted quote by Pastor John Braun said this: "Amen is our word of confident faith in all the promises God makes". And I stepped back and just sat with that for a while, considering deeply the connection between the words Confidence, Faith, Promises and God.

At about 4am the next morning, I was stirred to waking by the relentlessness of this wrestling match of words in my soul. You see, some of the songs I have written have been born out of sleep and in the waking hours of the night. I guess there is something creative that stirs in me at this hour of the early morning, and as I woke up, words were on the tip of my tongue. I walked out to the kitchen and began to write:

"Amen! So Shall it Be! LIVE like it's TRUE. The word Amen is more than an agreement with a statement, opinion or promise. Amen moves our prayer from active hope, to living belief."

This was the idea that the article had stirred in my mind, to my heart, and to the deepest part of my soul. What excites me about that word, used in Christian faith is that it moves our heart and mind from hope to something that gives life. Martin Luther described the process of believing as three parts. KNOWing information, TRUSTing that information to be true and then LIVing like it is true. You need to hear the Gospel and be touched by the means of Grace. By that Grace, we trust the promises of God to be true. BUT... then comes the hardest part for many of us, LIVING like those promises are true.

And that is why I believe this one little word is so powerful. Our prayers are often statements of information, desire, longing, and hope. They are statements. And then, we conclude and have to do something more than hope and that is live out the belief that our God hears us and will answer us, yes or no, or not now - all in his time. ALWAYS knowing that he will answer our prayers for our ultimate good and his ultimate glory.

As I sat with the satisfaction of the thought that AMEN moves our prayer from active hope to living belief, a robin began to sing in the altered darkness with just the faintest hint of light on the eastern horizon. It is amazing to me, that
here too is the example of AMEN sung by the God's creation itself, greeting the dawn that is - not quite yet, but sure to come! An active hope, sung into living belief that the promise of the new day is coming!

May our every prayer and hope rest in the confident faith in all the promises God makes - Amen?

AMEN!

A Day in the Life...

It was our annual family "Tourcation" earlier this month with concert stops at Peace Lutheran in Deshler OH, Our Savior in Cleveland, OH and worship with Cross of Christ in Syracuse, NY.

A little more than 3,000 miles and then off to concerts at Manitowoc Lutheran high school and worship with Shepherd of the Hills at Regner park in West Bend this past weekend. It's been quite the adventure and a tremendous blessing!

Still some upcoming events this week and then back to Muskego and Manitowoc in August. If you'd like to have us share some live music in concert or worship, we would love to bring some to you!

Artist Spotlight:

﻿"Jonah Backus and the Conquerors"

I'd like you to know about some of the artist friends of mine that I've had the chance to work with over the years so in the coming months I'll highlight some of them just in case you've never met a few of the other touring artists.

This past week I had the chance to finally see a group of guys from Martin Luther College who have been working on writing songs, performing live in concerts and worship, and pouring quite a bit of their hearts into sharing their faith through music. Some of you know that Jonah's uncle is my very good friend John Backus who helped get The Bridge started at St. Paul's in Muskego, and Jonah definitely picked up the musical talents of his family!

Luke, Paul, Jeremy make up The Conquorers and Jonah helps spearhead the vision of their ministry work. It was a real joy to have these guys open up for us at Manitowoc Lutheran this past week. A joy filled, hopeful band that bring a lot of smiles (and some dance moves... Jeremy!) and a very solid musical foundation that they are going to enjoy building on in the years ahead. Jeremy is also a songwriter, and they will all be contributing to a debut CD release later this year that you will want to check out. Some of the tracks are already available online and they did a great job putting a few videos together as well.

I've been a touring artist since 2004 so it is really neat to see the next generation finding a voice that sings from the rock solid hope we have in Christ. I hope you can check them out online at
jonahbackusmusiconline.com